Energy

Local firm to build Atco’s $1.6B eastern transmission line

Valard was chosen by Atco Electric on Monday to build foundations and towers, and string cables for the $1.6-billion Eastern Alberta Transmission Line, a 485-kilometre, 500-kilovolt, direct current (DC) line between the Gibbons-Redwater region and an area west of Brooks.

Photograph by: John Lucas
, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - Edmonton-based Valard Construction, which has grown from a small family firm into one of Canada’s leading power-line builders, has landed the biggest contract in its history.

Valard was chosen by Atco Electric on Monday to build foundations and towers, and string cables for the $1.6-billion Eastern Alberta Transmission Line, a 485-kilometre, 500-kilovolt, direct current (DC) line between the Gibbons-Redwater region and an area west of Brooks.

“Since 2010 we have been a wholly-owned subsidiary of (Houston-based) Quanta Services, and they dominate the market in the U.S.,” said Adam Budzinski, president of Valard. “They bought the company and left it intact, with dad and I at the top of the organization. And Quanta’s strength is backstopping this major project for us,” he added.

“There is not another contractor in Canada in this business who could have bonded this project. And while I can’t discuss the bid on this project, the bond required was the largest issued in Canada in the past six months.”

Victor Budzinski started the business in 1978 and did work along the Alaska Highway corridor. A joint-venture with another firm led to its acquisition, and the rest is history.

“Dad’s company had 10 to 15 employees and a couple of trucks, but more and more contracts arrived as the firm expanded into doing private power lines to mines in B.C and for oilpatch companies,” said Adam Budzinski.

He said Valard was the first power line firm to offer full engineering, procurement and construction services. Originally based in Grande Prairie, the company moved to Edmonton. Its head office is on 99th Street and Whitemud Drive, and it has three shops in Leduc. The firm now has 1,750 employees.

“I am proud of what we have been able to do here. Our sacred commitment has been to deliver projects on schedule, something a lot of others say but don’t do,” said Adam Budzinski. “And we have changed the work environment in the power line industry by being able to provide steady employment for the past decade.”

The crews assembled to work on the new Atco line have been working together for many years. Valard has an advance team in Oyen doing some planning work for the Atco project.

Atco has estimated that 1,000 workers will be needed for the two-year project. Construction is expected to start this spring and be complete by early 2015.

The eastern line is one of three major high-voltage transmission projects underway in the province. Altalink’s $1.4-billion western transmission line (between the Wabamun area and Calgary) was also recently approved, and the Altalink/Epcor $614-million Heartland line through Strathcona County from south Edmonton to the Redwater substation is under construction.

The DC lines include a converter station at each end to convert the power from alternating current.

The provincial government has been battling since 2007 to expand the north-south electric grid to meet what it calls a growing demand for power from bigger cities and new industries. Critics, however, have argued for years that construction of two north-south 500 kilovolt lines is a costly overbuild of the grid.

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Valard was chosen by Atco Electric on Monday to build foundations and towers, and string cables for the $1.6-billion Eastern Alberta Transmission Line, a 485-kilometre, 500-kilovolt, direct current (DC) line between the Gibbons-Redwater region and an area west of Brooks.

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